Sheet materials in warehouses are typically stacked in piles on wooden pallets or blocks of wood such that the piles of sheet materials can be easily moved with a forklift. Likewise, sheet materials are also transported on wooden pallets or blocks in piles such that the piles can be easily unloaded from a truck, rail car or other vehicle. While wooden pallets and wooden blocks work, they can be quite heavy and cumbersome to handle. Moreover, wooden pallets and wooden blocks are very hard and can damage soft materials such as drywall.
Drywall, which is also known as sheetrock, wallboard or gypsum board is generally produced in sheets, which are approximately four feet wide. The length and thickness of the drywall sheets vary depending upon the particular application. Typically, drywall sheets range from eight feet to twelve feet in length and from 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch in thickness.
Gypsum wallboard drywall is generally formed of a gypsum material sandwiched between sheets of gypsum paper. Often, two sheets of drywall or wallboards are taped together at their ends for stacking and/or transporting. The sheets of drywall are stacked during shipping and storage on spacers or risers. Currently, sheets of drywall are cut into strips and glued together to form a spacer or risers. These material spacers are typically damaged after a few uses and must be replaced. Of course, this requires new sheets of drywall to be cut up. This constant replacement of spacers can result in a substantial amount of waste and cost.
Examples of various types of prior cushions or spacers for shipping articles are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,338,542 to Meinhard; U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,463 to Roellchen; U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,355 to Maurer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,193 to Thomas; U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,023 to Elzey; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,064 to Carruthers et al. However, none of the devices disclosed in these patents are constructed for supporting sheets of drywall.
In view of the above-mentioned problem, there exists a need for a reusable spacer for stacking and transporting materials such as sheets of drywall. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs which will become apparent to those skilled in the art once given this disclosure.